Self-Host InsForge on AWS EC2

Step-by-step guide to self-host the InsForge platform on an AWS EC2 instance using Docker Compose, including SSH setup, domain config, and TLS termination.

Self-Host InsForge on AWS EC2

This guide will walk you through self-hosting the InsForge platform on an AWS EC2 instance using Docker Compose.

This deploys InsForge itself, not the app you built. If you just want to take your app live, use Sites instead. This guide is for running the InsForge backend on your own infrastructure.

This cloud walkthrough is community-maintained and can lag the latest InsForge release. The canonical, always-current setup is the deploy/docker-compose/ directory in the InsForge repo.

📋 Prerequisites

• AWS Account with EC2 access
• Basic knowledge of SSH and command-line operations
• Domain name (optional, for custom domain setup)

🚀 Deployment Steps

1. Create and Configure EC2 Instance

1.1 Launch EC2 Instance

1. Log into AWS Console and navigate to EC2 Dashboard
2. Click “Launch Instance”
3. Configure Instance:
   • Name: insforge-server (or your preferred name)
   • AMI: Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS (HVM), SSD Volume Type
   • Instance Type: t3.medium or larger (minimum 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM)
     • For production: t3.large (2 vCPU, 8 GB RAM) recommended
     • For testing: t3.small (2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM) minimum
   • Key Pair: Create new or select existing key pair (download and save the .pem file)
   • Storage: 30 GB gp3 (minimum 20 GB recommended)

1.2 Configure Security Group

Create or configure security group with the following inbound rules:

Type	Protocol	Port Range	Source	Description
SSH	TCP	22	My IP	SSH access
HTTP	TCP	80	0.0.0.0/0	HTTP access
HTTPS	TCP	443	0.0.0.0/0	HTTPS access
Custom TCP	TCP	7130	0.0.0.0/0	Dashboard + API
Custom TCP	TCP	5432	0.0.0.0/0	PostgreSQL (optional)

⚠️ Security Note: For production, restrict PostgreSQL (5432) to specific IP addresses or remove external access entirely. Consider using a reverse proxy (nginx) and exposing only ports 80/443.

1.3 Allocate Elastic IP (Recommended)

1. Navigate to Elastic IPs in EC2 Dashboard
2. Click Allocate Elastic IP address
3. Associate the Elastic IP with your instance

This ensures your instance keeps the same IP address even after restarts.

2. Connect to Your EC2 Instance

# Set correct permissions for your key file
chmod 400 your-key-pair.pem

# Connect via SSH
ssh -i your-key-pair.pem ubuntu@your-ec2-public-ip

3. Install Dependencies

3.1 Update System Packages

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

3.2 Install Docker

Follow the instructions of the link below to install and verify docker on your new ubuntu ec2 instance:
https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/

3.3 Add Your User to Docker Group

After installing Docker, you need to add your user to the docker group to run Docker commands without sudo:

# Add your user to the docker group
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

# Apply the group changes
newgrp docker

Verify it works:

# This should now work without sudo
docker ps

💡 Note: If docker ps doesn’t work immediately, log out and log back in via SSH, then try again.

⚠️ Security Note: Adding a user to the docker group grants them root-equivalent privileges on the system. This is acceptable for single-user environments like your EC2 instance, but be cautious on shared systems.

3.4 Install Git

sudo apt install git -y

4. Deploy InsForge

4.1 Get the Repository

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/InsForge/InsForge/main/deploy/setup.sh | sh -s ~/insforge

Checks out the files the stack reads and generates JWT_SECRET, ENCRYPTION_KEY, ROOT_ADMIN_PASSWORD and POSTGRES_PASSWORD into .env. Nothing is started.

4.2 Create Environment Configuration

cd ~/insforge
nano .env

The secrets are already generated — leave them as they are. Set the URL browsers will use:

API_BASE_URL=http://<your-public-ip>:7130
VITE_API_BASE_URL=http://<your-public-ip>:7130

Optional, all off by default:

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=      # AI features
VERCEL_TOKEN=            # site deployments
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=        # OAuth providers
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=

.env.example carries every remaining variable with its defaults.

💡 Back up .env somewhere safe. Its secrets are what let you migrate or restore this instance.

4.3 Start InsForge Services

# Pull Docker images and start services
docker compose up -d

# View logs to ensure everything started correctly
docker compose logs -f

Press Ctrl+C to exit log view.

4.4 Verify Services

# Check running containers
docker compose ps

# You should see 4 running services:
# - postgres
# - postgrest
# - insforge
# - deno

5. Access Your InsForge Instance

5.1 Test Backend API

curl http://your-ec2-ip:7130/api/health

Expected response:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "version": "2.1.7",
  "service": "Insforge OSS Backend",
  "timestamp": "2025-10-17T..."
}

5.2 Access Dashboard

Open your browser and navigate to:

http://your-ec2-ip:7130

Log in with the ROOT_ADMIN_USERNAME and ROOT_ADMIN_PASSWORD you set in .env.

6. Configure Domain (Optional but Recommended)

6.1 Update DNS Records

Add DNS A records pointing to your EC2 Elastic IP:

api.yourdomain.com    → your-ec2-ip
app.yourdomain.com    → your-ec2-ip

6.2 Install Nginx Reverse Proxy

sudo apt install nginx -y

Create Nginx configuration:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/insforge

Add the following configuration:

# Backend API
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name api.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:7130;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

# Dashboard (served by the backend on the same port as the API)
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name app.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:7130;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

Enable the configuration:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/insforge /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

6.3 Install SSL Certificate (Recommended)

# Install Certbot
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

# Obtain SSL certificates
sudo certbot --nginx -d api.yourdomain.com -d app.yourdomain.com

# Follow the prompts to complete setup

Update your .env file with HTTPS URLs:

cd ~/insforge
nano .env

Change:

API_BASE_URL=https://api.yourdomain.com
VITE_API_BASE_URL=https://api.yourdomain.com

Restart services:

docker compose down
docker compose up -d

🔧 Management & Maintenance

View Logs

# All services
docker compose logs -f

# Specific service
docker compose logs -f insforge
docker compose logs -f postgres
docker compose logs -f deno

Stop Services

docker compose down

Restart Services

docker compose restart

Update InsForge

An update is a pull and restart — but the checkout matters too: the stack reads Postgres’s configuration and the Deno functions from it. Run this from ~/insforge:

cd ~/insforge
git pull origin main

# Pick up any files this release added to the sparse checkout
sh deploy/setup.sh .

docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

Backup Database

Run these from ~/insforge:

# Create backup
docker compose exec postgres pg_dump -U postgres insforge > backup_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).sql

# Restore from backup
cat backup_file.sql | docker compose exec -T postgres psql -U postgres -d insforge

Monitor Resources

# Check disk usage
df -h

# Check memory usage
free -h

# Check Docker stats
docker stats

🐛 Troubleshooting

Services Won’t Start

# Check logs for errors
docker compose logs

# Check disk space
df -h

# Check memory
free -h

# Restart Docker daemon
sudo systemctl restart docker
docker compose up -d

Cannot Connect to Database

# Check if PostgreSQL is running
docker compose ps postgres

# Check PostgreSQL logs
docker compose logs postgres

# Verify credentials in .env file
cat .env | grep POSTGRES

Port Already in Use

# Check what's using the port
sudo netstat -tulpn | grep :7130

# Kill the process or change port in docker-compose.yml

Out of Memory

Consider upgrading to a larger instance type:

- Current: t3.medium (4 GB RAM)
- Upgrade to: t3.large (8 GB RAM)

SSL Certificate Issues

# Renew certificates
sudo certbot renew

# Test renewal
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

📊 Performance Optimization

For Production Workloads

1. Upgrade Instance Type: Use t3.large or t3.xlarge
2. Enable Auto-scaling: Set up Application Load Balancer with auto-scaling groups
3. Use RDS: Migrate from containerized PostgreSQL to AWS RDS for better reliability
4. Enable CloudWatch: Monitor metrics and set up alarms
5. Configure Backups: Set up automated daily backups
6. Use S3 for Storage: Configure S3 bucket for file uploads instead of local storage

Database Optimization

# Increase PostgreSQL shared_buffers (edit postgresql.conf in deploy/docker-init/db/)
# Recommended: 25% of available RAM
shared_buffers = 1GB
effective_cache_size = 3GB

🔒 Security Best Practices

1. Change Default Passwords: Update admin and database passwords
2. Enable Firewall: Use AWS Security Groups effectively
3. Regular Updates: Keep system and Docker images updated
4. SSL/TLS: Always use HTTPS in production
5. Backup Regularly: Automate database backups
6. Monitor Logs: Set up log monitoring and alerts
7. Limit SSH Access: Restrict SSH to specific IP addresses
8. Use IAM Roles: Instead of AWS access keys where possible

🆘 Support & Resources

• Documentation: https://docs.insforge.dev
• GitHub Issues: https://github.com/insforge/insforge/issues
• Discord Community: https://discord.com/invite/MPxwj5xVvW

📝 Cost Estimation

Monthly AWS Costs (approximate):

Component	Type	Monthly Cost
EC2 Instance	t3.medium	~$30
Storage (30 GB)	EBS gp3	~$3
Elastic IP	(if running 24/7)	$0
Data Transfer	First 100GB free	Variable
Total		~$33/month

💡 Cost Optimization: Use AWS Savings Plans or Reserved Instances for long-term deployments to save up to 70%.

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Congratulations! 🎉 Your InsForge instance is now running on AWS EC2. You can start building applications by connecting AI agents to your backend platform.

For other production deployment strategies, check out our deployment guides.